Hillary laughs it up on “SNL”

I want several things fromour next president. A coherent foreign policy. An economic plan thathelps the poor and middle class instead of corporations and the rich.An extension of full equal rights to all LGBT Americans. And last, butnot least, an ability to laugh at her/himself. However you feel about Sen. Hillary Clinton, she provedshe could deliver the latter this past weekend, with a surprise stopby Saturday NightLive.

Hillary appeared in an “EditorialResponse” to the show’s opening skit, which spoofed the most recent Democraticpresidential debate. Her on-screen doppelganger Amy Poehler joinedher, and the resemblance was pretty uncanny.

With the next, and possibly deciding, primaries just a day away, itremains to be seen whether Hillary’sappearance swayed any votes. But it should go a long way to dispellingthat old sexist chestnut about women and their senses of humor. I mean,how good of a sport do you have to be to go on right after it’s impliedthat your plan to take down special interests is to be “so annoying,so pushy, so grating, so bossy and shrill, with a personality so unpleasant,that at the end of the day the special interests will have to go, ‘Enough!We give up! Life is too short to deal with this awful woman!’”? According to TMZ, Hillary was given the skit in advancefor approval and told them not to change a thing.

The sketch marks SNL‘s secondHillary-positive skit in as many weeks. Who knew the Not Ready for Prime TimePlayers were a bunch of women’s studies majors? “Bitches get stuffdone” is totallymy new personal mantra.

It’s never easy being a trailblazer.For whatever missteps or miscalculations her campaign may have madealong the way, you have to applaud how historic Hillary’s candidacyhas been. In a race with so many firsts, it’s easy to overlook what atruly transformational notion a female president still is in America.And if her candidacy does nothing else, perhaps it has exposed how opposedsome still are to the very thought of a woman in charge. If I hear/read/seeone more discussion about her voice/laugh/dress/hair/femininity/lack offemininity, I think I’ll scream. In the face of all the mainstream sexismand old-school misogyny that still exists, it’s easy to get discouraged.And, even here, maybe Hillary has shown us the way. Just laugh.